4. Types of legal problems

People most commonly report legal problems related to debt and money; neighbour disputes; and access to health, pensions, education and public services. Not much variation is noted in the top problems among the various demographic groups. 

To properly interpret these results, it is important to remember that the eJNS was self-administered, meaning that there is less control over the reporting of problems and whether they can be qualified as legal problems. It is possible that the higher prevalence of debt and money problems is due to people reporting economic problems that do not have a legal route to be resolved. This is partly supported by data – people who cannot cover their basic needs reported more debt and money problems than their more financially stable counterparts.